Post Premium: Top stories for the week of May 3-9 – The Denver Post

Those of you who regularly attend worship services most likely have watched as year after year, the faces in the congregation have changed — perhaps you’ve seen fewer young adults coming, or maybe even noticed more empty pews.

That trend has been well documented, though a recent Gallup poll highlighted a new milestone: Fewer than half of U.S. adults say they are members of churches, synagogues or mosques.

Then the pandemic hit and created a whole new difficulty for religious leaders. Or was it an opportunity?

This Sunday’s 1A story by reporter Jon Murray explores how Colorado’s places of worship navigated the challenges of the last year, and how the pandemic brought the chance to reinvent themselves and reach a modern congregation.

“Flexibility and, I hate to say it, convenience, is here to stay,” the Rev. John A. Moreland, senior pastor of Denver Christian Bible Church, told Murray. “We have to be relevant. We have to be more meaningful.”

You can read more about where religious leaders and scholars believe religion in America and Colorado are headed here:

Lee Ann Colacioppo, Editor of The Denver Post

Pandemic shifts, declining membership: Colorado churches chart out future in uncertain times

  • “Insane” housing market: More metro Denver buyers willing to pay whatever it takes to get a contract
  • Colorado behind only Michigan in new COVID-19 cases per capita, but recent decline offers hope
  • Denver to turn hotel into a shelter for some of its homeless population
  • Denver landlords need long-term rental licenses under new law
  • Keeler: Congratulations, Broncos. Ja’Wuan James, not Ian Desmond, is now Denver’s worst free-agent signing.

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